Bots and Online Climate Discourses: Twitter Discourse on President Trump's Announcement of U.S. Withdrawal from the Paris Agreement

The study analyzed 6.8 million tweets to determine the influence of bots on climate change discourse. While the immediate response to President Trump's announcement of the U.S. withdrawal from the Paris Agreement showed low bot presence, suspected bots were responsible for approximately 25% of original tweets before and after the event, particularly within denialist discourses.

• Analysis of 6.8 million tweets revealed that suspected bots were responsible for approximately 25% of original tweets during the periods preceding and following the announcement of the U.S. withdrawal from the Paris Agreement.
• The immediate online social movement response to President Trump's June 1, 2017, announcement of the U.S. withdrawal from the Paris Agreement was characterized by a very low presence of suspected bots.
• Suspected bots appeared more frequently in specific topic areas, specifically those involving denialist discourses that question the importance or reality of climate change.

APA

Marlow, T., Miller, S., & Roberts, J. T. (2021). Bots and Online Climate Discourses: Twitter Discourse on President Trump's Announcement of U.S. Withdrawal from the Paris Agreement. Climate Social Science Network. https://cssn.org/bots-and-online-climate-discourses-twitter-discourse-on-president-trumps-announcement-of-u-s-withdrawal-from-the-paris-agreement/

Chicago

Marlow, Thomas, Sean Miller, and J. Timmons Roberts. Bots and Online Climate Discourses: Twitter Discourse on President Trump's Announcement of U.S. Withdrawal from the Paris Agreement. Climate Social Science Network, 2021. https://cssn.org/bots-and-online-climate-discourses-twitter-discourse-on-president-trumps-announcement-of-u-s-withdrawal-from-the-paris-agreement/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Marlow |first1=Thomas |last2=Miller |first2=Sean |last3=Roberts |first3=J. Timmons |title=Bots and Online Climate Discourses: Twitter Discourse on President Trump's Announcement of U.S. Withdrawal from the Paris Agreement |publisher=Climate Social Science Network |date=19 January 2021 |url=https://cssn.org/bots-and-online-climate-discourses-twitter-discourse-on-president-trumps-announcement-of-u-s-withdrawal-from-the-paris-agreement/ |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{marlow2021bots, author = {Marlow, Thomas and Miller, Sean and Roberts, J. Timmons}, title = {{Bots and Online Climate Discourses: Twitter Discourse on President Trump's Announcement of U.S. Withdrawal from the Paris Agreement}}, institution = {Climate Social Science Network}, year = {2021}, month = jan, url = {https://cssn.org/bots-and-online-climate-discourses-twitter-discourse-on-president-trumps-announcement-of-u-s-withdrawal-from-the-paris-agreement/}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }